An Early Gift
by McMax
Summary: Mac gives Harm an gift on Christmas Eve.


Author's note. I'm one of those who the last seven minutes does not make up for the last three years of Mac being pretty awful to Harm and this story comes from the what I feel was the last chance for Harm and Mac.

The snow fell silently down from a pitch-black sky. It melted on impacted with the streets and sidewalks, but stuck on the cooler grass and thus promised Washington D.C. it's first white Christmas in many a year. With the snow, the late hour and the fact that it was Christmas Eve the streets and public places of the city were practically empty of people, but in a few places a few souls gathered and one of those places was the Vietnam Memorial.

A few older men stood looking at the black panels but seeing the faces of lost comrades and at one panel a younger man stared but he too was lost in memory of a father long gone. He was tall and handsome and dressed in the white cap and dark blue overcoat of an officer of the United States Navy. The boards on his shoulders had the four gold stripes of a Captain and the emblem of the Judge Advocate General Corp. He reached out with a gloved hand and touched the name Harmon Rabb Sr. A few feet to one side Sarah Mackenzie Rabb looked at her husband and knew that this was the time and place for her news, she opened her purse and softly called out "Harm."

Harmon Rabb turned to his wife and gave her a loving smile. Part of him still amazed that they were now together after years of drama and regretted that it took a terrible tragedy to bring them together. That one of their dearest friends Bud Roberts had to loose a leg and nearly his life for them to finally to drop all the walls around their hearts. He remembered sitting on the bench with Mac nestled into his side and realized that it could as easily been one of them on that operating table and they wouldn't have made it, that they would have lost each other forever. Harm turned to Mac and the words came.

"I love you Sarah Mackenzie." He said.

Mac looked into his eyes and saw the truth of this and heart soared.

"I love you, I love you more than anything Harm." She said.

And that was all it took. It was hard being on the ship for there was almost no time alone for them, just a few moments for a tender embrace and them Mac had to go back to the Seahawk and Harm escorted Bud to the military hospital in Rhine-Main Germany. After an investigation in Italy, Harm return to D.C. and waited five long weeks for Mac to return home. She arrived on a commercial flight and Harm met her at the airport and took her to her apartment. While Mac took a bath Harm made dinner and after told her that he had a special desert for her. He set a plate that held neither chocolate not another sweet but a small black velvet box. With trembling hands she opened it and saw the most beautiful ruby and diamond ring. She looked up to see Harm kneeling beside her.

"No more being apart." Harm said. "We have been apart for too long and have gone though too many times when we could've been parted forever and I can't go though this any more. I want a life with you. Will you marry me?" He asked.

"Yes, yes, yes, YES, YES!" Mac answered as she slid off her chair and threw herself on top of Harm.

They called Harm's parents that night and announced their engagement to every one at JAG HQ the next day saying that the wedding would be as soon as Bud would be able to attend. They had a meeting with Admiral Chegwidden a couple of days later.

"I can't keep both of you here after the wedding." AJ told them. "Navy regs are clear that married couples can't serve together in the same unit and I can't do for you what I did for Bud and Harriet because the circumstances aren't the same. However it would be easy to keep you in the same area if one of you would be reassigned and to be honest Commander it's passed time that you take the next step in your career."

Both Harm and Mac knew that at the ranks they now held that their courtroom days were over and it was time, and as AJ just told them, in Harm's case almost pass time to move on from JAG HQ.

"And I think that this assignment should fit you well Harm. Staff JAG for Naval Air Forces, Atlantic." AJ said.

"That's an O-6 billet Harm!" Mac said.

"You should get that fourth strip by the time you get your twenty Harm." The Admiral added.

Harm thought for a moment and answered. "I'll take the job sir." Harm answered. "We'll consider it a wedding present."

Mac moved in to North of Union Station, and in a couple of months when Bud was able to attend they were married by Chaplin Turner and then a two week honeymoon at Frank and Trish's beach house in Bermuda. After their return there was the definitely bittersweet moment of Harm's leaving JAG HQ for his new post. And although he did miss litigating this new job brought Harm into a different world with new challenges that he eagerly met and over came. After a year in their new life Mac received a new job offer of her own. The newest Inspector General of the Marine Corp had been Mac's CO in Bosnia and when Consul to the IG, the IG's lawyer, retired he remembered then Captain Mackenzie and she was at the top of the list. Mac was looking to move on. JAGHQ was not the same after Harm left (although she much prefers their relationship now) and Admiral Chegwidden's retirement. Plus after being at the Naval JAG HQ as long as she had, Mac wanted to return to a Marine Corp unit.

So we find the dynamic duo at the top of their form professionally and their marriage strong and passionate. They had come from their first Christmas tradition of dinner at Bud and Harriet's home in which they celebrated Harm's, Bud's and Jason Tiner's promotions and the engagement of Jason and Jennifer Coates. AJ and Meredith and Sturgis and Varise attended as well and it was happy night. Harm change into his uniform for his other Christmas tradition, the visit to the Wall. Mac remained in civilian clothes and Harm thought that she looked especially fetching in her burgundy wool hat and coat and black leather boots. He saw that she was holding out a small box wrapped in silver paper.

"Presents are opened on Christmas day, Mac. That 's the way we've always done it." Harm said.

"I know. But I want you to open this one here and now. Please." Mac said with a loving smile.

Harm could deny her nothing when she smiles at him like that and he took the box and tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box.

"Little shoes?" Harm said. Then realization of what they were dawn on him and he spoke again, his voices just above a whisper. "Baby shoes." Harm's head snapped up and he looked at his wife and saw that her eyes were shimmering.

"Five weeks yesterday." Mac told him.

"Oh God Sarah!" Harm said, his voice braking as he stepped to her and crushed her to him.

It happened. It finally happened. After all the tests and the charts and the thermometers. The calls and rendezvous and the effort to make sure that each time was beautiful and loving and not a chore and afterwards holding each other and praying _Oh God please, Please! _It had happened. The one thing that they both so desperately wanted, the one thing that they need to make them complete, a child on their own.

Harm loosens his embrace enough so he could drop his head and kiss Mac. He poured all the love and joy he felt in to it and Mac returned every bit of it. He wanted to fill his beloved Sarah with love for her and the life she now carried. Harm broke the kiss and pulled her close and turns his head and looked at his father's name, realizing that he had to be the first to be told.

"I'm going to be a father!" Harm proclaimed. Then he turned back to Mac and they smiled at each other bright enough to light up the all of DC. Then a snowflake landed on Harm's cheek.

"Sarah it's cold out here! You should have waited in the car, not out in this!" Harm said with a look of great concern on his face as he fumbles around trying to fold up the lapels of her coat.

"Harm!" Mac said, with a gentle laugh as she caught his hands.

Harm laugh as well and kissed her once more then said, "Lets go home."

And with their arms around each other home they went, the three of them.

Merry Christmas!


End file.
